Hello everyone I am thinking of getting a KSE and I was talking to a one of my help buddies and he was telling me some crazy things he has seen with one of the HPS3 heads at this field. Tail locking at full endpoints, tail drift during hurricanes, swash play and a servo ball set screw stripping out... has anyone experienced anything bad with a KSE? I want one but if its going to be on the bench more than in the air I will just stick to the HPS head.

I have one but i can not really add too much since i have only hovered it a few times
I did at first have problems with the tail locking (going over center )at was travel in one direction. the slider was replace at no charge and all is fine
It took 3 hover test flights to get the tail belt to stay adjusted

My next step is fine tuning the bar since i still have tail wag (suspect gain is still too high) and get it ready for real flights

What i love other then looks is it is very smooth and stable at a lower head speed

I would think that if there are things happening to it some could be the build itself / workmanship a great product is only as good as the build

I myself am not an aggressive flyer some big air i like things slower and gentle with minor 3d so i am probably not going to blow out ball links

Thank you for the feedback I am not a smack pilot but i do like tic tocks and other maneuvers that are not big air.. my biggest concern is getting a bird that is going to have mechanical issues from the start because of the third blade. But it sounds like theres really nothing inherit in the design just from building flaws.

Honestly i have been flying mine few times now and it is really an impressive machine.
I did not have any quality issue at all, it is really a high end machine.
Regarding the flight, the tail is incredibly powerfull and locked (and noisy...)
The main difference for me is the locked feeling of the head, and precision in cyclic control. It is quite difficult to explain but the head feels heavy and stable, and very reactive at the same time.
The collective is a bit more difficult to get used to, it does not have the same pop as i get form the 2 blades head. It may come from the fact that i do not run more than 1900 rpm (compared to 2100 with 2 blades). I am icreasing the pitch and the pitch pump at the moment. It improves things.
Generally speaking it is the most stable and locked machine i ever had.
It is brillant, love it...

^^how much pitch are you running?

Yannick's reply sounds very similar to my experience so far. I have ~40 flights with 3 blades, and hundreds with 2.
The 3blade version feels very good for most things, especially set manouvre stuff.

I increased the pitch range from ~12 to ~13Â½ degrees. Still, the hard stops are not quite as solid as with 2 blades. One way to make it solid, is to increase headspeed to something not healthy for the lipo packs :-)

Personally I did not like what the 3 bladed tail did to the overall sound, but using the 24T tail pulley the 2x 115mm blades actually also work good. And then the sound of the model becomes incredibly nice.

All in all, an awesome model, and I am not changing it back to 2 main blades :-) I rather investigate how I could safe some weight. I am sure that could also help the pitch response.

that's one guy out of how many out there ?
I own a Urukay 3Blade and the KSE 700 3Blade both have become my favorite helis and havnt had a single issue with anything except all my smiles while flying

Urukay HPS3 KSE 700 HPS3

Thank you everyone for the feed back. I have one now and it's a very awesome machine. I'm trying to get used to the pitch as it is a lot more sensitive. I want to ask what head speeds is everyone running? Currently I'm at 1800 1850 and 1950. I did have it all the up to 2000 but that was too high for me... I am trying to learn better collective management because it does make a huge difference in this heli.

Kyle runs 1950 and 14.5 degrees on his. It pops pretty well.
Your goal to improve your collective management skills is key to good flying regardless of the brand of heli.

I understand what you are saying the heli doesn't make the pilot the pilot makes the heli. My original question which was answered was brought up because I have heard someone who had some issues with the three blade head and tail, although this was just one person's experience I was trying to see if anyone else had those issues and how to prevent them. I was not trying in anyway to suggest SAB Goblins were not great helis. In fact they are all I fly now.

In regards to collective management, was more or less looking for different techniques from those who are more advanced than I am. I can fly but no where near the skill level or precision of Kyle Stacy or any of the other pros and I do appreciate any help.

Right now I am running 13.5 degrees of pitch and I do like the way the heli flies, I am just trying to get used to how sensitive the pitch is and thats what motivated my question about collective management. When I had the HS at 2000, I bogged the head doing tic tocks but I am sure that was my fault and not the helis.

I think that it is admirable that you want to improve such a critical skill.
Kyle got his start on collective management by flying a somewhat under powered helicopter. It required him to learn how to manage what power he had.
This may be tougher to do these days because our machines are so over powered but turning the head speed down is one method that would work.

Here is the pyshics behind the 3 bladed head (given all the other factors remain the same when used with the 2 bladed head settings)
- less efficient
- will pull more amperage
- flight time is decreased
- you have more solidity
- this will increase agility
- to get the same response, you have to decrease the pitch (if you remain at same HS)
- increasing pitch w/o reducing HS will make your heli more reactive around center
- if you reduce the HS, you have to watch your jnput since excessive collective/cyclic will bog the motor and blow out the tail. You can play with motor kv to gear it so you can run a lower HS but still get plenty of torque. This is where collective management comes into play. Finesse those controls as though you are driving a manual transmission. Work it like the clutch and gas. More collective, less cyclic and vise versa. This explains why you are having issue is on Tic Tocs. There is a minimum HS required for each set 3D maneuver. You will find it through trial and error. Play with different Head Speeds. If you are comfortable with the FBL settings, you can tune the following to taste:
- agility
- paddle sim for vbar
- initial response for ikon / captron
- dual rate for beastx
- head gain
- it varies amongst FBL controllers

I personal don't like 3 bladed head but it's very cool to look at. I'm more into simplicity, cost and efficiency. The 3 bladed sound is very unique and I have owned a few.

My suggestions are:
- start @ 1900~1950 HS
- 10 degrees of collective
- 6 degrees of cyclic
- drop head & tail gain 10 - 15 points
- 15 for the TX expo
- you can keep the rest of FBL settings as you were flying with the 2 bladed head till you get acquainted with the 3 bladed head characteristics

Interesting. At 1900 with 13.5 degrees it was too powerful for me so I dropped my IU1 to 1850 and my IU2 at 1950 and i like the way it flies I am just learning how to manage the extra blade. But I do like it a lot. One if my friends set it up with advice from the man himself Kyle Stacey and he explained that you have to have an increased collective range otherwise it won't fly right and will feel mushy. Like I said I think it's more me than the heli at this point. Although if I ever meet KS in person I would absolutely ask him to fly it and see what he thought.

The RC discussion world needs to consolidate. RR is now one choice for that.
Its software is cutting edge. It hosts on-topic advertising.
Help RR increase traffic buy making suggestions, posting in RR's new areas (sites) and by spreading the word.